


Finding Grace

by Smalltowngirl



Series: Path Less Traveled [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Anti-shield, F/M, Gen, Hiatus, Skyeward-freeform, one night stand led to so much more, sequel to Technicolor, the path to family is a long and twisted journey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-20
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-05 06:11:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4168953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smalltowngirl/pseuds/Smalltowngirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A one night stand changed her life, 15 months later her life changed again.  The path to finding love has never been smooth and finding family can be even more long and twisted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Loss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anuna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anuna/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Technicolor](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4127715) by [Anuna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anuna/pseuds/Anuna). 



> So this is a fic spawned in part by the fact that I’ve been indulging on a Nora Roberts/Linda Howard binge specifically Birthright and Cry No More which deal with kidnappings and couples whose dynamics remind me a lot of SkyeWard. It got me thinking what if instead of being hell bent to find her parents Skye was searching for something a lot more precious and fragile her daughter. All trails lead to Shield so Skye focuses on getting in much as she does in canon only for another twist. The suit tossing a bag over her head just so happens to be the tall dark and handsome fly by night drunken one night stand she had 5 years ago and oh yeah her daughter’s father. This is a sequel to Anuna’s Technicolor. I encourage you to go read it

[](http://s356.photobucket.com/user/barngoddes05/media/sw7_zpsqb9ti64l.jpg.html)

banner by grantsskye.tumblr.com

Prologue

They say motherhood changes a person and in a lot of ways, Mary Sue Poots thinks that’s the truth. Before she became a mother her greatest goal in life was to find her parents, to track them down and ask them all the questions that had piled up, why they had abandoned her, how could they let her go. She’d been willing to do just about anything to track them down, lie, cheat even steal on occasion. Mary likes to think she’d draw the line at murder but sometimes she wonders looking back on how driven she was if she might have been capable of doing just that.

The birth of her daughter changed everything. Oh she still had questions, still had that thirst to know where she came from, what her roots were, but it no longer felt important when the doctor placed the small wrapped bundle in her arms. Everything faded away, the fear that she had lost her, the pain in her abdomen, everything faded and centered on the baby in her arms.

June 4th 2008 everything changed for her. Her life changed and her priorities shifted. She needed to provide a stable life for her daughter and living out of a van, hacking into government agencies staying two steps ahead of the law wasn’t the way to do that. She rented an apartment and instead of hacking mainframes started designing defenses for them that she could market to companies.

She was actually pulling in good money and it wouldn’t be long before instead of just looking at houses and dreaming of a yard she and Grace would be able to buy a house and her daughter would grow up with the stable upbringing she herself had lacked. There were days when she wondered if she gave up on her search to fast, gave up seeking truth to soon then Grace would give her a gummy smile and she just knew that she’d made the right choice. Her daughter was the most important thing in her life and she wanted nothing but the best for her. In order to give her daughter a good life she had to leave Skye firmly in the past.

She was Mary again and every time her daughter gave her a gooey smile she couldn’t regret it, she wouldn’t regret it.

~~

The mall was crowded, far more than Mary had expected it to be. She frowned slightly as she rocked the stroller back and forth a quick peek assured her that Grace was sleeping like the doll baby she was. Mary stooped to adjust the red velvet dress her daughter was wearing her fingers trailing over the lace. A picture with Santa to add to her daughter’s baby book, had been Mary’s intention when she’d started out this morning but judging by the line for Santa and the crowds in the mall she was thinking about taking her chances on another day.

She sighed and straightened knowing she’d only get maybe fifteen minutes more of her daughter sleeping before she’d wake up. She rocked the stroller slightly as she debated the pros and cons. Mary knew she was probably being a bit overzealous with the pictures as it was but she wanted to capture every milestone. She wanted desperately to make sure that her daughter never felt what she herself had felt so often growing up.

It happened fast. One moment she was moving at a snails pace in the line for Santa and the next she felt something bite her neck. One hand came up and slapped at her neck half expecting to feel a bee or a mosquito instead she stumbled slightly as waves and lines masked her vision. “What the hell,” she mumbled as her hand tightened on the stroller handle. She shook her head in an attempt to clear the fog that was clouding her mind suddenly.

“Grace,” she said softly her voice not much more than a whisper as the edges of reality faded around her. Her hand slipped from the stroller as her knees turned to jelly failing to support her body and she slumped bonelessly to the ground.

Immediately several people crowded into her view and dozens of voices were asking if she was alright. It all seemed to come at her from a great distance almost as if she was underwater. “Grace,” she managed to say again struggling against unconsciousness, fighting with every ounce of her being to stay in the now.

Past the people now crowding around her she could still see the stroller, pushed away from her slumped form to make room for all the people who seemed to be so concerned about her well being no one seemed to care about the infant in the stroller. “My baby,” she murmured one hand fluttering out to grab the nearest person to her, “please.”

A man leaned close to her yet his voice seemed to come from far away, “It’s going to be alright now.”

Mary couldn’t really make out his features but he was definitely an older man and he was wearing sunglasses which struck her as odd because they were indoors. Her attention went back to the stroller but it was gone now, “No,” she breathed and struggled even harder to fight whatever it was in her system, “my baby.”

“Just rest now,” the man said pushing her back towards the ground, “everything is going to be fine.”

“Grace,” she breathed out as she finally lost the fight to stay conscious and everything went black.

As soon as the young woman’s body went completely limp the good Samaritan on her right side quickly and systematically went through the purse the woman had been carrying on her shoulder. A small almost regretful frown creased his brow when he pulled a picture of the woman holding her daughter out of the wallet before he put it in his breast pocket. His hand came out of his pocket with a bottle of antidepressants that he quickly slipped into the purse before he quietly faded back into the crowd that had gathered around the collapsed woman. “Is the package secured?” he murmured quietly as he slipped from the crowd.

“Affirmative,” came the whispered reply in his ear.

“Is the nest clean,” he murmured back.

“As a whistle sir.”

“Good,” he said then paused to look back at the crowd that still surrounded the young woman whose life he’d just helped change. A niggling of guilt edged in on his conscience a niggling that he ruthlessly suppressed. It was for the greater good the woman was young barely nineteen from the information they had gathered she would be better off and as for the child. Well initial tests of the infant’s blood had shown wondrous healing capabilities, they would see to it that her education and care would be top notch far better than her single mother could provide. It was definitely for the best all around. The mother had shown resistance when the doctor who had alerted them to the properties in the child’s blood and attempted to diagnose the child as epileptic in order to allow for them to run more extensive tests and diagnostics on the child and her blood but the mother had balked, wanted a second opinion, especially before okaying any intrusive tests. The greater good was more important than the transitionary happiness of one woman or child.

A hand clapped down on his shoulder startling him out of his thoughts, “You ok.”

He shook his head real quick and shot a self depreciating smile up at the other man, “Doing fine, this job was just a bit tougher than I thought it would be.”

The other man chuckled, “Well hell if was easy,”

The first man shook his head, “I know, it wouldn’t be any fun.”

~~~

The door slammed shut, almost cracking from the force used on it. The petite brunette leaned against it sobbing furious tears one hand covering her mouth as she gasped for breath. She wasn’t crazy, she wasn’t. A small gasp left her lips as she surveyed the small apartment she’d made home for the past six months. All signs that a child had lived there were erased. Her purse slipped from her hands falling to the floor.

“No,” she breathed out as her dark eyes darted frantically from side to side looking for some sign that an infant had lived there. The baby blanket she remembered tossing on the back of the couch this morning after feeding Grace her bottle, gone, the framed pictures of Grace sitting on the mantle, missing. Her feet carried her to the kitchen, the dirty bottle she knew she left sitting in the sink, absent, the formula in the cuboards, replaced by liquor of varying varieties. Desperation drew her to the nursery, “Please,” she murmured softly as she opened the door, relief initially held her immobile as she stared into the immaculate nursery that was exactly how she’d set it up. Then another sob bubbled up in her throat as her eyes catalogued the changes. The nursery was immaculate, everything sitting in its place, unused as if no baby had every slept in it, as if no child had ever had the opportunity to use it. Dark eyes looked at the pristine condition of the clothes sitting at the ready on the dresser the room, the lack of the pictures she knew had been sitting there that morning all bore evidence that this room had been changed as well.

As if in a haze she moved to her bedroom where her laptop sat. She licked her lips and carefully booted it up a broken sob left her mouth as the background of her computer lit up revealing dogs instead of the picture of Grace giving the gummy smile she loved best. The folder she had on her desktop labeled Grace was also missing.  
Her fingers flew over her keyboard, frowning a bit as the data flew across her screen then frowned harder. A few more key strokes altered the flow of data and her mouth took a decidedly grim look and the grief left her eyes replaced by determination. Her shoulder’s hunched and her fingers moved faster, the computer screen suddenly went blank before rebooting up.

Her lips curved into a small bittersweet smile of satisfaction as one hand drifted down to idly stroke the scar on her abdomen. Whoever had wiped her hard drive had been good, but she was better. The proof that Grace existed, that she wasn’t crazy was all right here on her computer not that anyone would believe her. Whoever had taken her baby had done a good job of selling her as a delusional crackpot. Hell she’d almost bought it herself but they weren’t as good as they thought.  
Shield, she thought with a sneer. She’d come across the agency before. An intelligence agency that worked solely in the shadows, its whole existence believed by many to be a myth, a fairy tale. She’d run across them before during her dealings with the Rising Tide as well as the last bit of information she’d been able to discover about her parents had been a Shield case file that was so redacted it was impossible to read. They were the only ones who could have pulled this off. What they wanted with Grace, she didn’t know or care but Shield had a made an enemy that they would regret today. She would find her daughter and she would destroy anyone and everyone who got in her way

~~~

June 4th 2012

Various images from what TV talking heads were calling the battle of New York played on video screens behind the petite dark haired woman as she carefully unwrapped a chocolate frosted cupcake. She smiled a small bittersweet smile as she carefully lit one wax candle in the shape of a purple 4 and set it on top. In the quiet of the van that she had been making her home for the past 3 almost 4 years she sang Happy Birthday to the ghost of the child she wanted most right at that moment.

Today Grace would be four years old and Skye didn’t know if her daughter even liked chocolate or if she was allergic to soy. A single tear trickled down her cheek but she dashed it away quickly as she blew out the candle, her wish the same one she made every year on this day, on Christmas, on the day she celebrated her birth, in every wishing well and shooting star she saw that this year would be the year she would finally be reunited with her daughter.

One of the computers whirring in the background chimed suddenly drawing her attention from her mini breakdown into a chocolate cupcake. Her focus shifted to in and a manic gleam started to glow in her eyes as the information scrolled across her screen. Silently she toasted with the chocolate cupcake, Project Centipede. Skye had no idea what it was but it was going to be her way in come hell or high water.


	2. The In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Skye finds Shield or Shield finds her and Grant finds the face that's haunted his dreams for far longer than he likes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for checking out my story. I just want to warn everyone that we are going to be starting out slowly. Skye wants Shield to burn but she’s clever enough to make sure she does it right. This story should follow along the events of the first season of Agents of Shield with hopefully a chapter per episode. I also want to apologize again for the delay in this update as well as the delay in updating and the fact that I can no longer promise weekly chapters. Hopefully sometime I’ll have a good writing day and get ahead of myself so that I can get some sort of a constant update schedule going but as I said in my update on Tumblr my summers are very full between fair and camping my free time has dwindled to practically nil. I love you all still and I really hope you enjoy this story as it comes out slow though it may be. I’ll try to add updates on Tumblr to let you all know when to look for an update or to add little hints and such as I have time. I would like to thank GrantSkye again for my lovely banner as well as LadyofWarandMercy for handholding during my computer crisis as well as many thanks and love to my internet besties Vesperass-Anuna and MorePrawnCrackers even though I’ve been fairly absent internet wise recently as I said my personal time is practically nil these days.

[](http://s356.photobucket.com/user/barngoddes05/media/sw7_zpsqb9ti64l.jpg.html)  
Chapter 1:

The building looked fairly ordinary. It was hard to imagine a shadowy government project operating out of the average brick office building. Yet all of the information Skye had gathered indicated that the unassuming building was the site of a project code named CENTIPEDE at least according to the back chatter she had gathered.  
She smiled briefly and side stepped a man and his son who had stopped to admire the Avenger’s toys in the window of the toy store house in the building right next to her target. Her heartbeat sped up as she pulled her phone out to double check that the parabolic microphones she had aimed at the building were receiving data properly. All the information she had found indicated that the site was still active.

If that was the case then for the first time in almost four years she might actually get a lead. Skye licked her suddenly dry lips as her free hand came up to tangle with the locket hanging at her throat.

Almost four years since the day her life had been turned upside down. Her little girl was four years old somewhere in the world. Her little girl who had no idea how much her mother loved and missed her. Someday she would see her daughter again and make sure that she knew each and every day how much she was loved.  
An explosion caused her to jerk to one side almost crashing into another pedestrian before stopping to game up at the once pristine building. The once quiet and unassuming brick building now had smoke billowing out of and flames licking at the windows.

Her fingers moved almost with a mind of their own, pulling up the camera on her phone and starting to record the fire. Her heart jumped up into her throat as a man appeared silhouetted in the flames briefly before leaping to the chorus of shocked gasps from the people below.

Skye’s eyes followed the man’s descent down as he landed less than ten feet in front of her, the cement cracking under him from the force of his touchdown. He gently set the woman in his arms on the ground before looking up. Eyes met across the hazy sidewalk and the man froze. A million emotions seemed to chase their way through his eyes the biggest being fear then the sound of sirens drawing closer jerked him out of the stare down and in a flash he was gone.

~~~

Sweat rolled down her back as she stopped at the corner of the diner in front of the alley where she had parked her van. She dropped her hands to her knees and stood there for a second bent over and taking deep breaths when she straightened and caught sight of the “hooded man”, as the media were calling him, entering the diner.

Skye stood motionless for a long second pulling the earbuds out of her ears as she stared at the diner. “Don’t involve yourself Skye,” she muttered as she turned off her iPod and began stretching her legs out. “This is the closest you’ve been to shield to finally getting some answers about Grace don’t blow it now by helping him out. Shield is already likely on his tail,” even as she tried to talk herself out of it she remembered the boy she’d seen him standing with outside of the toy store. “Damn it to hell,” she said as she shrugged into her sweater and followed him into the store and slid into the booth across from the man. “Act natural. We are just two people having a conversation.”

“Pardon me,” he said looking at her as if she had just grown a second head. Something she acknowledged he had a right to as here she was a perfect stranger sliding into the booth with him. “I don’t even know you.”

“Skye and you’re the hooded man,” she stated matter of factly. She watched as the man winced and shot a quick glance around to see if anyone had heard her.

“No, I’m a factory worker,” the man quickly denied shaking his head.

“Sure maybe by day. Look I didn’t come in here to debate semantics with you. You’re in danger,” Skye said well aware she appeared to be a crazy lady dressed in her yoga pants and sweat shirt with her hair pulled back into a messy pony tail tendrils sticking to her face from sweat.

“Yeah from crazy fan girls accosting me in diners,” the man said arching an eye brow at her.

Skye rolled her eyes, “No from Shield.”

“What you think I should carry a shield,” the man asked.

“No SHIELD, scary men in suits whose specialty is making people like you disappear,” she said her face earnest in its intensity. At the man’s incredulous expression, “Look I wouldn’t even be approaching you except that you are the idiot who played hero without wearing a mask if I can track you down imagine how easy it would be for people with actual government resources.” Skye huffed out a breath in exasperation at the unimpressed expression currently on the man’s face. “Look with powers comes a ton of weird crap that you are not prepared to deal with. The way I see it you have three options.”

“Really,” the man said still looking at her with a healthy degree of skepticism and a smidgen of genuine interest.

Skye took it as a good sign that he hadn’t gotten up and left her yet, “Option A you keep doing what you are doing and eventually SHIELD will catch up to you and likely lock you away in a place where they can watch and monitor your every move trying to figure out what makes you tick. Option B you get out in front of this thing. Get in the media make a name for yourself make so much noise that hopefully you can’t vanish without a trace and no one being the wiser or caring.” Skye paused then watching the man carefully.

“And option C?”

“You vanish. You pack up what ever you need take your son and disappear. You start over make a new life for yourself and don’t draw attention to yourself. I can help you do that. I can make it so that you don’t exist so that you can go completely off the grid. My,” she paused as she debated how best to phrase it, “office is in the alley behind the diner.”

“You have an office,” the man said eyebrow raised.

“Well it’s a mobile office,” Skye hedged when he still looked at her eyebrow raised she sighed and rolled her eyes. “Ok I work out of my van and its parked in the alley behind the diner but hey free wifi.”

The man shook his head and got up, “Look I’m sure your nice but you are barking up the wrong tree with me.”

“No,” Skye said getting up to follow him as he quickly made his way to the exit. When the man didn’t even so much as pause at the door she couldn’t resist calling after him, “They’re coming for you,” she paused and looked down at the driver’s liscence she’d palmed, “Mike Peterson.” She frowned again after Mike’s retreating back then shook her head. She’d done what she could to help him. It wasn’t on her if SHIELD caught him and turned him into their human expirament. The little boy’s face flashed in her head again and she sighed. There might be one more thing she could do for Mr. Peterson the only question was who Shield wanted more the hero or an in with the Rising Tide.

 

~~~

Grant Ward frowned slightly as he and Coulson approached the van positioned in an alley behind a diner in East LA. He still wasn’t completely ok with this mission, joining   
Coulson’s team, he’d never been much of a team player. In the back of his mind he could hear his mentor’s voice, ‘Attachments are weakness boy.’ So he was a bit surly that wasn’t a crime but getting the word from both of his bosses that he didn’t have a choice about this OP he’d joined Coulson’s flying circus. Finding out he was the only field rated Agent aside from Agent May who according to Coulson was merely there to fly the bus meant that the protection of everyone on it fell to his shoulders. He quickly smoothed his face to cool and expressionless as Coulson quickly opened up the van door.

It was only thanks to his many years of training that kept Grant’s mouth from dropping open in shock at the petite female figure revealed behind the door. As it was he was also grateful for his sunglasses that masked the widening of his eyes or the fact that once recognition took hold they roved over her slight form in a highly unprofessional way. He watched as she froze mid speech and turned to look at them. His dark eyes searched her face wondering if she recognized him the same way he had instinctively recognized her.

“Hey,” she said her lips curving in an almost sardonic grin, “what up?”

He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from protesting as Coulson tossed a bag over her head and hauled her none to gently out of the van. As it was he couldn’t stop himself from interjecting his larger form between Coulson and the woman, cuffing her hands in a far more gentle manner than any of his peers would have believed him capable of. He then slipped an arm around her gripping her far arm to guide her gently but surely to the waiting SUV. He felt rather than saw Coulson move around to the far side of her almost as if to help him in guiding her to the car. Grant couldn’t stop himself he moved ever so slightly so that his larger body practically surrounded her and he gave Coulson a back off look before again gentler than he’d ever handled anybody in his life he lifted the woman up to set her in the car.

Coulson gave him a long look before moving around to get in the passenger seat leaving Grant to let out the breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding to get in the driver’s seat. The first test was over, god help him. Now to see how well he could handle the coming interrogation without letting it slip out that he knew the woman in the back seat. The last thing he wanted getting back to either of his bosses was the fact that one night six years ago he’d had a hot and heavy one night stand with a girl he’d never been able to completely forget. A one night stand that had shaken him so much that he’d scampered out the door before dawn without even getting the girl’s name. A one night stand that was currently sitting in the back of the SUV apparently a Rising Tide hacker and a definite wrench in all the careful plans he’d laid out upon starting this mission.

~~~

Skye took deep calming breathes trying to slow her heart rate down. This was the plan or at least a variation of her original plan which had been to plant a bug at the lab in the hopes of hacking a deeper level of the Shield mainframe. That plan had blown up with the lab this variation had been formulated after her talk with Mike. Perhaps what she needed to do was get inside the system that had screwed her over so much, make them like her and need her. She was a damn good hacker and she wasn’t modest about it. If she could make them trust her, make herself useful she might be able to get inside their system. The best way to bring down a system was to be inside of it. The car slowed 

down and stopped. Skye took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself for being manhandled out of the car.  
She was surprised when unlike when she had been pulled out of the van the hands helping her out of the SUV were not rough. Skye didn’t want to classify it as gentle but she could think of no other word to describe the way the agent was handling her. His strong arm slid around her waist and held her steady when she stumbled stepping onto what seemed to be a ramp and for a second a scent that teased at the edges of her memory wafted up her nose. Electricity seemed to arc between herself and wherever the arm was around her waist then it was gone and the arm once more was firmly on her arm guiding her up the ramp. She was led to a chair and her hands uncuffed.

“You guys are making a big mistake,” Skye managed to bite out as the bag was pulled from her head. She blinked rapidly to allow her eyes to adjust to the dim light of where she was being held.

“You don’t look that big,” said a familiar male voice to her right. Skye look and had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep her expression bland. Tall, dark and handsome, large as life leaned against a wall folding the bag that had been on her head so briefly not looking at her.

“Sorry for the lack of finesse,” the older suit who was seated across from her said drawing Skye’s attention and giving her time to mentally deal with the fact that her one night stand and baby daddy was less than ten feet away. “Agent Ward here has had a little history,” Skye bit her lip and only allowed herself a quick glance at tall dark and stoic currently imitating a robot still against the wall his face completely expressionless. If they knew about them, about Grace then this was all over, her mission ended when she was finally so close, “with your group.” 

Skye barely kept the smart ass comment about being a memorable lay behind her teeth when the robot clarified things, “The Rising Tide.” Skye didn’t give an audible sigh of relief but she felt it even as her body didn’t relax grateful she hadn’t just made a fool of herself by blurting out her entire plan to the two suits in front of her baby daddy non withstanding.

Feeling much more secure that her secret was still kept she chided herself for getting worked up about being kidnapped, what had she expected Shield to make an appointment. Skye adopted a faux innocent look, “I don’t know what you’re...” her words trailed off as, tall dark and handsome, Agent Ward, crowded into her personal space.

“There are two ways we can do this,” he bit out. Energy seemed to hum in the air between them. Skye’s tongue darted out to lick her suddenly dry lips. She felt heat as his eyes dropped to her lips and seemed to be tracing the path her tongue took.

For a second it was as if the year has dropped away and she was again the flirtatious waitress trying to get a reaction out of a tall, dark and handsome stranger. Her grin was flirtatious, “Is one of them the easy way,” she asked her voice not much more than a sultry whisper that hung in the air. The silence stretched between them for a beat and his eyes met hers again. For the briefest of seconds Skye would swear she saw stark male desire burning in his dark eyes.

Then he was leaning back, his face the same cold expressionless mask it had been at the start of the interview making Skye wonder if she’d imagined the desire that had burned so hotly in his eyes. Wishful thinking on her part perhaps, the loss of a potential ally against the faceless government that had taken her daughter. “No.”

Skye leaned back as well her own eyes cool as she studied Agent Ward for a long moment wondering if anything ticked behind that cool mask of his, “Oh,” she murmured more sardonic now than flirtatious.

“What’s your name,” the older suit asked. The question drawing Skye’s attention back to him and she watched his eyes dart back and forth between her and Agent Ward. Clearly he’d picked up on the under current going between them even if he wasn’t sure about the cause.

Skye eyed the older man thoughtfully wondering how he’d react if she casually dropped the info that one of the men in this room had seen her naked. Deciding it would likely hinder rather than help her mission, she decided to focus on charming the older agent. Skye judged him to be the one most likely to gain her access to the info she needed, “Skye.”

“What’s your real name,” Agent Ward interjected his dark eyes watching her assessingly.

For a brief moment her mind raced back over their one night together six years ago. Names hadn’t been exchanged and she was almost positive she hadn’t been wearing a name tag at the bar where they’d meet. She answered perhaps a little more forcefully than necessary, “Skye.”

“That can wait,” the older agent interjected before the pair could get into another charged standoff. “It’s another name we need…a certain hero.”

Skye frowned slightly her mind racing. It had been foolish of her to think that she and the information she possessed about the rising tide might rate higher on Shield’s stand point than a powered person. Hell they’d rather have both and if she wasn’t careful they would. She wasn’t prepared, however to give up Mike just yet. If the man was smart he’d taken her advice and he and the kid were hightailing it out of the city. All Skye needed to do was buy some time, “What makes you think I know?”

The older man smiled in what Skye was sure was meant to be a paternal manner but to her came off as more condescending. “Well you made a little mistake.” Skye merely arched her eyebrows at him refusing to be baited into answering and gave him an expectant look. “The phone you filmed the hooded hero with had the same cryptographic signature as a few of the rising tide posts.”

Skye adopted a suitable impressed look on her face, “Wow yeah.” Then a gleam entered her eye causing Ward to stiffen and straighten even as Skye leaned forward. “Was that a mistake?” Skye then made a show of looking around the small room eyeing the padded room, “Or am I now sitting in the center of your secret headquarters? What is this a plane?” Skye smirked at them both before going in for the kill, “I got inside and by now you’ve discovered you can’t beat the encryption on my equipment, so you got nothing.”

“We have a fairly strong coincidence,” the older man said. Skye barely suppressed a snort of derision at that comment, “you being on the scene right before it went up in flames. Want to tell me what my team is going to find out?” Skye shrugged slightly, “How did you know the hooded man was in the building?”

“Did you blow it up to draw him out,” Agent Ward interjected.

Skye didn’t have to feign the affronted look that came on her face as her attention swung back to Ward her dark eyes shocked and a bit hurt, “Did you?”

“That’s not our style,” the older man said drawing Skye’s attention back to him.

Skye didn’t have to feign the look of disbelief either or the snort of derision she let out, “Really. I was just kidnapped by your “style”.” She used air quotes to enunciate the word style, “Shield covered up New Mexico, Project Pegasus. Of course you’d be covering up Centipede.” Maybe it was because she was so tuned to Ward leaning against the wall but she knew the instant his body language changed from antagonistic to confused. Her eyes flew back to him in time to see him mouth the word centipede to the older agent. “Holy…no way,” Skye said barking out a soft laugh, “billions of dollars of equipment at your disposal, and I beat you with a laptop I won in a bet.”

The older agent scowled and for the first time in the interview seemed annoyed with her and her mirth, “Look you need to think about your friend.” Skye focused again on the older agent who rearranged his features to a more genial fashion. “We’re not the only ones interested in people with powers.” Skye frowned slightly, adopting a considering expression on her face as if she was actually thinking about what he was saying. “We’d like to contain him yeah,” it was tough to maintain the considering expression on her face when all she wanted was to make it apparent exactly what she thought of their ‘containment’. “The next guy will want to exploit him, and the guy after that will want to dissect him.”

Agent Ward however was no longer focused on the hooded hero, “What is Centipede?”

~~~

Grant could feel Coulson’s eyes on him but he didn’t care. Centipede could be the answer to his dilemma about this god forsaken mission. His attention remained focused on his flirty waitress, Skye, Christ if they were alone well they weren’t and thankfully that was keeping his vaulted control in check for the moment even if he had slipped getting into her personal space like that.

“Centipede was chatter on the web then gone,” Skye said looking between both him and Coulson before getting up to pace restlessly. “I traced the access-point mac address to that building,” she finished gesturing with her hand.

Since Skye was standing now Grant walked to the opposite side of the interrogation room to keep distance between them, “What were you after?”

Grant watched as her expression closed down completely and it perked at his curiosity, ‘Attachment is a weakness,’ Garrett’s voice in his head seemed to echo, “The truth,” she finally stated her eyes clouded as they held for a second before she dropped his gaze again. “What are you after?”

“World peace,” he said. Then despite his better judgement he got into her personal space again unreasonably angry that the girl he couldn’t despite his best judgement get out of his head, “You pseudo anarchist typed love to stir things up, but you’re never around for the fall out.” Grant met her eyes wondering if she truly didn’t remember him or if she him was simply preferring not to let the information become public knowledge in this forum. “People keep secrets for a reason, Skye.”

He watched as knowledge flared briefly in her eyes before she moved into his personal space this time poking a finger into his chest, “Well just because you’re reasonable and firm..” her words trailed off as her eyes followed her hand to his chest and heat arched between them again. She took in a shuddering breath which made Grant feel slightly better that he definitely wasn’t the only one being affected. “Doesn’t mean that you’re not an evil faceless government tool bag.”

Grant frowned at her, “Just tell us your guy’s name.”

“He’s not my guy,” she said as she ended the standoff by walking away from him this time and Grant was grateful. A few more moments of breathing in her scent and he wasn’t sure if he’d maintain enough of his control to not grab her and do what he wasn’t sure throttle her or kiss her.

“You understand he’s in danger,” he heard Coulson say. Grant suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at Coulson’s coaxing tone.

“So let me go,” she said her tone slightly mocking as she looked between the two men. “Let me talk to him not the T-1000 here.”

Grant scowled slight feeling just a bit affronted at the robot quip when she knew for a fact that he was anything but robotic. “You want to be alone with him,” he accused and was rewarded when Skye promptly crossed her arms and huffed out an affronted breath, “Of course, she’s a groupie,” he snarked, she wants to bring name calling in he’d bring it right back. “All this hacking into SHIELD, tracking powers,” he glared at Skye, “she might as well be one of those sweaty cos play girls crowding around Stark tower,” there was a dark note that entered his voice as his words gave rise to the image in his mind of Skye dressed in one of those skimpy outfits he’d seen some of the girls in and the thought of her dressing like that for someone else well homicide was crossing him mind right then.

“What,” Skye said and she promptly rolled her eyes, “I would never…” she trailed off as she seemed to consider something, “it was one time.” Grant actually took a step towards Skye, what he intended to do he wasn’t sure.

“Ward,” Coulson said before indicating to the door with his head then leading him out of the room. “Is it the girl? Is she getting under your skin,” he asked as soon as the door securely shut behind them.

“Sir,” Grant asked not sure what Coulson meant by this. Yes he and Skye had definitely interacted in a sparring fashion but he didn’t think there had been anything in their interaction that had indicated that they might have known each other before this encounter.

“Or is it the assignment? Are you so anxious to get out of this you’d deliberately blow an interrogation?”

It took everything he had not to snort derisively at Coulson’s comment. Yeah he hated this assignment even more so now that Skye was involved it was one clusterfuck away from being a complete melt down but that wasn’t what had caused him to act unprofessionally. No that honor was completely in the petite brunette that six years ago had rocked his world and he’d never fully been able to get her out of his mind. “Give me a minute alone with her,” he paused wondering if he’d actually interrogate Skye or not if actually left alone with her, “you’ll get your answers.”

“She’s an asset,” Coulson said apparently blithely ignorant to the sexual undertones in Grant’s words as he opened up a door and pulled out a sodium pentothal derivative.

Grant restrained the urge to knock the drug out of Coulson’s hands. The drug wasn’t that strong, Skye might have a natural immunity to it, and if not he’d hopefully be able to direct the questioning off of personal ties, “She’s such an ass…wait asset,” he said as Coulson’s words actually penetrated into his mind. A strange premonition of dread was percolating in his mind.

“We don’t know anything about her. Do you appreciate how often that happens,” Coulson asked Grant almost rhetorically as he prepped the air gun with the serum. Grant just stared at him hoping against hope that his horror wasn’t masked on his face, the absolute last thing he needed was for Coulson to decide Skye would be a great addition to the team. “That never happens.” Coulson’s eye met Grant’s as they stood together the air gun between them. “We need to know what she knows.”

~~~

Skye stared at her hands after the pair of agents left the room again. After Agent Ward left the room. Her hands twisted together. This was such a clusterfuck. The last thing she needed was to lose sight of her plan, of her end game which was to get her daughter back. Her one night stand, her daughter’s father, she shook her head, and she had to get Agent Ward out of her head. At best if she ever trusted him enough to tell him about Grace he might be an ally, at worst.

Skye let out a shaky breath. Her eyes flew to the door as it opened and Ward and the older agent walked back in and she quickly sketched a coolly confident expression on her face.

“This is QNB-T16,” the older agent said holding up an injector gun for her to see. “It’s a top shelf martini of sodium pentothal derivatives. It’s a brand new and extremely potent truth drug.” Skye felt the blood drain from her face, her eyes darted to Ward and she bit her lip to keep the plea that sprang up there from being voiced. “Don’t worry the effects only last about an hour.”

Skye’s eyes flew back to the older agent’s face an expression of disbelief covering her face briefly because for real that was supposed to reassure her that the effects only last for an hour. “And then you’ll have a nice nap,” Agent Ward said drawing Skye’s attention back to him. His words and tone were condescending exactly what she would expect from a government tool bag it was his eyes that surprised her, the warm understanding and, god help her, sympathy. “And we’ll have all the answers to our…..Hey what the hell?” Skye was startled when the older agent shot Ward in the arm. For a second there was such an unguarded expression of shock on Ward’s face that Skye wasn’t completely sure this wasn’t some sort of a set up.

“I’m sorry did that hurt?”

Skye’s eyes went wide at the callous question even as Ward was already answering it. “No but you’ve lost your mind.” Skye was of a mind to agree with Ward mainly because if he had just shot Ward up with a truth serum then either A. They thought she was way more naïve than she truly was and the truth serum was a lie or B. they valued their own agents so little they would toss them to the wolves to build a little clemency with someone determined to bring them down. “And yes it did hurt a little bit, but I always try to mask my pain in front of a beautiful woman.” Skye’s musings on how truthful this encounter was got derailed as her mouth dropped at the open compliment. Christ if this shit was legit she was going to have her hands full keeping Agent hottie from spilling the beans about their one night stand, provided he remembered it. “God that stuff works fast.”

“Don’t trust us? Ask him whatever you like,” the older agent said gesturing to Ward as he took a shaky seat across from her. Yeah her bull shit meter was going off majorly, whatever they had injected her baby daddy with it was likely not the high powered truth serum they advertised, likely a low powered sodium pentothal derivative he’d already been trained to withstand. Either way this could be fun. The tension that hummed between her and Agent Ward had her fairly convinced that he did remember her which made her wonder how far she could push this.

“Wait a minute,” Ward said as the older agent moved to exit the room, “wait you can’t just,” the older agent exited leaving Ward to her tender mercies. “This is definitely against protocol.”

Skye smiled then bit her lip as she pulled her jean jacket off, “You seem nervous Agent Ward.” She got up to walk around to stand next to him.

Ward didn’t look at her and seemed to be gripping his hands in front of him in a convulsive manner, “I’m calling to mind my training.” Skye arched an eyebrow before scanning the room IDing the camera in the corner. “There’s no way I’m gonna reveal classified secrets to a girl whose hell bent on taking us down.”

Skye grinned before deciding how to open this little Q and A session, “Have you ever killed anyone?”

“Yes,” he hissed out the word almost seemed to drip with menace then he seemed to collect himself, “ a few high risk targets,” then he looked at her and an almost earnest expression took over his face, “but they were terrible people trying to murder nice people and I didn’t feel very good afterwards.”

Skye nodded pursing her lips into an appropriate sympathetic expression as she leaned over his shoulder. She could feel Ward tense under her and she knew he was waiting for the question about them, about her, the question he wouldn’t want to answer as it would showcase to his superiors that he had contact with her prior to this mission but if he lied about it she’d know that this whole thing was a farce. “And what does your grandmother think about this?”  
Ward’s expression turned becomingly poignant even as the expression in his eyes was relieved, “Gramsy?”

~~~

Skye flipped a switched, “Are you getting the feed,” she asked through the ear piece her mind already drifting away to contemplate the revelations of the past few hours. The kid’s voice droned through the ear piece as background noise as she carefully assessed her own emotional state at coming face to face with her child’s father. It was after all something she’d thought about often during the duration of her pregnancy to see him now after her daughter had been missing for four years, to find him working with the very people she knew were responsible for that disappearance was disconcerting to say the least. It wasn’t that she hadn’t suspected that tall dark and handsome had some sort of ties to a secret government organization. Skye was after all one of the best so when she’d been unable to find any sort of thread to tug to find him again once she’d realized her pregnancy she knew he had to be a ghost of some sort. But to find him in the mix with the same group responsible for the disappearance of her daughter, the thought trailed off as the kid started babbling inanely on the coms causing a small smile to quirk at her lips.

Then there was this team. She didn’t trust them at all not a one of them, but especially not the older man who kept trying to project the air of paternalism as if that was supposed to engender trust and believability. There was something off about him the spurred the innate dislike but she couldn’t pinpoint it at all even if his actions of the past 6 hours hadn’t drove the point home that he was someone she should never trust. Skye nibbled worriedly on her bottom lip slightly as she considered her options. She’d grown up dodging interfering state workers and was fairly certain she could lose the agent assigned to keep an eye on her but was that what she wanted to do. Tall dark and handsome, Ward a soft portion of her brain whispered, finally a name to go with the face that had haunted her dreams for so long. The singular reason why she was contemplating giving up the plan that she’d been fine tuning for the past four years, while at the same time presenting for the first time a potential ally. How much did he know? Was he in on it? Did he know that they had their daughter somewhere? Did he know he had a daughter? So many questions and no answers at all. Unfortunately for Skye answers and a decision would have to come later because before she could make headway of her thoughts she was “rescued.”

~~~

Grant calmly disassembled then reassembled the sniper rifle for the third time since May’s call had come in that Mike Peterson had abducted Skye and her van. He could hear Coulson in the other room giving instructions to Fitz and Simmons, he still wasn’t completely certain which one was which. He understood why Coulson had taken the tactic he had taken that didn’t stop a small kernel of resentment from forming. It was just one more person in a long line of people who had used him to gain their own ends. A small smirk tugged at his lips because the truth was in the end the gag would be on Coulson. The smirk disappeared as reality intruded, Skye. A breath huffed out between his lips as   
Grant’s thoughts turned to the small brunette who was currently occupying his thoughts.

The one night stand that had always had the potential to be more. It had been the whole reason he’d left before she’d woken up and resisted any and all urges to go back to find her. Skye had always had the potential to be his greatest weakness the fact that his thoughts were focused on her and whether or not she was alright instead of his mission. He could only hope after they found Skye alive and well, a dark expression crossed his face briefly, and they would find her alive and well, that Skye would once again go on her own way.

When Coulson came in to let him know that Skye had managed to get her location to them and they were leaving. A moment of foreshadowing fell over him as Coulson made a quip about him wanting a bomb to defuse. He stared after his temporary boss a feeling of dread washing over him. Skye’s ingenuity and quirks were exactly the type of things that drew Coulson in. If he wasn’t careful or lucky, which given all the events that had happened so far into this mission and he’d only been on it 12 hours he wasn’t either, his temporary thorn in his side could grow into a serious complication.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well there you all have it the Pilot. The next chapter will pick up with Skye joining the team and the 084. The next chapter will give everyone a good look inside both Skye and Grant’s heads as they try to navigate their unique relationship as well as keeping their secrets. This Skye is going to be very much like season 2 Skye only her vendetta is against Shield as opposed to Hydra/Grant. The other difference is that as the season progresses while Skye will never ever trust Shield that doesn’t mean the team won’t change her views a bit. Instead of Skye coming to the conclusion that the team is exactly what Shield is all about she’ll instead come to the conclusion that the team is the exception that proves the rule as to what Shield is truly like. I’ll try to respond to any and all reviews but please try to understand that while Skye wants to bring down Shield her focus is going to be on finding her daughter first and foremost and as such the first half of this story is going to be focused on her working to gain the teams trust so she can utilize them to unknowingly help her find her daughter as well Grant and their unique relationship.


End file.
